Taqwacore, the subculture of the Muslim punks

As I was researching about punk rock in the Middle East, I came across the Taqwacore subculture which I had no idea existed. Taqwacore is punk rock movement that has emerged following the publication of Muhammad Michael Knight’s 2003 novel, The Taqwacores, depicting a fictitious Islamic punk rock scene. The word has been derived by combining two words – “taqwa”, an Islamic concept of love and fear for Allah, and “hardcore”, the punk rock subgenre. In other words, Taqwacore can be viewed as a punk music with a Muslim connotation.

According to Hebdige, “spectacular subcultures express forbidden contents in forbidden forms. They are profane articulations and they are often and significantly defined as unnatural…” This can be applied to the Taqwacore subculture where express ion of forbidden content in forbidden forms is regular (e.g. expressing frustration of 9/11 attacks in their lyrics; women-led prayers). The basis of the subculture that is the merging of two seemingly incongruous identities contributes to the spectacular nature of the subculture. Punk rock, as a subculture and musical style actively resists mainstream society and embraces a marginalized identity and role in society. Punk rock blurs traditional boundaries between audience and performer and questions traditional or accepted norms and values. In stark contrast, Islam is a structured religion founded on a deeply personal and individual belief in God and is characterized by selflessness, devotion, and devout sense of social responsibility. From this we can call Taqwacore as a bricolage where the combination of various objects and ideas (in this case punk rock and Islam) appears nonsensical but makes perfect sense to the people involved in the subculture. For the Muslim punks, Taqwacore serves as a platform where they can embrace their own interpretations of Islam via punk rock and use internet to build communities and spread the message.Some of the popular Taqwacore bands are The Kominas, Al - Thawra and Vote Hezbollah.

For this blog article I will be examining the dressing styles and choices by the Muslim punks by viewing it from the two forms of incorporating a subculture – (a) the commodity form & (b) the ideological form. In the Subcultures Reader, Hebdige refers to the commodity form by mentioning that the subculture is communicated through commodities even if the meanings attached to those commodities are purposefully distorted. For the punk rock scene, this commodity form is represented in through the use of spikes, chains, mohawks and dyed hair. Interestingly enough, the Muslim punks combine both the usual punk rock associated styles (use of mohawk and spikes) and Arab traditional wear such as hijabs and the traditional Palestinian checkered scarves which can be seen in the below pictures.

The ideological form occurs when the subcultural style becomes more accepted through the labeling and re-defining of deviant behavior by dominant groups such as the media or the police, through various forms of communication technology. Before the use of pins and spikes on clothing was unheard of and would probably be labeled as fashion disasters. But now, it has become a part of mainstream media and hence has become acceptable. Even in the Qatari society, you can see young females wearing abayas with spikes and pins.

The Punk Movement

With the appearance of a shaved porcupine and the attitude of a badly behaving Rottweiler, the punk had a major impact on the vanilla attitudes of the British population. It developed as a counter-culture, completely going against the values and norms of the general public; they were the bad boys and girls of the day. Mothers probably made up nasty stories about punks just to keep their children in line.

The punk movement came up as a way to show the world that there were those who simply would not succumb to the folkways and the mainstream scene, be it fashion or music. A typical punk wore torn or recycled clothes that no decent Brit would look at twice, held together crudely with safety pins. Body piercings too were very common.

The punk movement also brought about a genre of music known as punk rock. The music is very aggressive, played with distorted guitars and loud drums. The singer practically screams at the audience. Mostly, punk rockers sing about their ideologies and their views of the world. Some famous punk rock bands are “Sex Pistols”, “Minor Threat” and the American sell-out band “Green Day.”

The punk movement gave rise to various other factions, sort of like a culture within a sub-culture. Goth and Emo are both off-shoots of the punk rock movement. As are “hardcore punk,” and “anarchy punk.”

Punk rock isn’t only isolated to Europe and the Americas. There are punk rockers in the Middle-East as well. Musicians like Rachid Taha are heavily influenced by punk rock. Bands like Mazhott (Damascus), Creative Waste (Saudi Arabia) and Slumpark Correctional (Syria) are also quiet popular in the region.